In cryptography, higher-order differential cryptanalysis is a generalization of differential cryptanalysis, an attack used against block ciphers. While in standard differential cryptanalysis the difference between only two texts is used, higher-order differential cryptanalysis studies the propagation of a set of differences between a larger set of texts. Xuejia Lai, in 1994, laid the groundwork by showing that differentials are a special case of the more general case of higher order derivates.[1] Lars Knudsen, in the same year, was able to show how the concept of higher order derivatives can be used to mount attacks on block ciphers.[2] These attacks can be superior to standard differential cryptanalysis. Higher-order differential cryptanalysis has notably been used to break the KN-Cipher, a cipher which had previously been proved to be immune against standard differential cryptanalysis.[3]
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